You've spent 200 hours perfecting a Strength/Faith beast on your main account. Then, for whatever reason—maybe a sibling's Steam library or a fresh secondary account—you want that same character somewhere else. Or maybe you found a "mule" save online that has every single armor set in the game, and you’re tired of farming the Magma Blade for the fourteenth time.
You try to move the file. The game tells you the save is corrupted. You panic.
That is basically the "Welcome to Elden Ring" moment for anyone messing with file structures. The game doesn't just check if a file exists; it checks if that file belongs to you. This is where the elden ring save copier comes in, and honestly, it’s the only thing standing between you and a "Load Failed" screen.
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What is an Elden Ring Save Copier anyway?
Basically, every Elden Ring save file (that ER0000.sl2 thing in your AppData) is hard-coded to a specific SteamID. If you just copy-paste a file from a friend, the game's internal checksum and ID validation will flag it as "corrupted" immediately.
An elden ring save copier—specifically the popular one by BenGrn on GitHub—is a utility that "re-signs" a character from one save file into another. It doesn't just move the data. It actually rewrites the SteamID header so your game thinks, "Oh, yeah, I totally made this character."
It’s surprisingly simple to use, but people mess up the order of operations constantly.
- Find your saves: Hit
Win+R, type%appdata%, and go to the EldenRing folder. - The ID folder: You’ll see a folder with a long string of numbers. That’s your SteamID64.
- The Actual Tool: You open the copier, select the "Source" (the save you want to steal from) and the "Destination" (your actual save file).
- Copying: You pick a slot and click copy.
Done. Or at least, it should be.
The DLC Problem: Shadow of the Erdtree Changes Things
When the DLC dropped, a lot of people thought their save tools were broken. Honestly, they kinda were for a minute. The file structure changed slightly to accommodate the new Scadutree Fragment leveling and the massive influx of new item IDs.
If you are using an elden ring save copier today, you have to make sure the "Destination" file has been loaded at least once in the current version of the game. If you try to copy a 2022 character into a 2024 save file that hasn't been "seen" by the DLC-enabled game engine, you're asking for a crash.
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I’ve seen dozens of threads where players try to import "Mule" saves from the launch era. It’s a mess. Most of those old saves lack the internal flags for the Shadow Realm. You’re better off starting a fresh character, getting to the First Step, saving, and then using the copier to overwrite that fresh slot with your old veteran character.
Will Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) Smite You?
This is the big one. Everyone asks: "Am I going to get banned?"
The short answer? Not for the act of copying.
The long answer is a bit more nuanced. FromSoftware's EAC doesn't really care about the file's origin; it cares about the content. If you use an elden ring save copier to move a character that has 99 stacks of "Cut Content" items or weirdly modified stats (like 99 Intelligence at Level 10), you are toast.
But if you are just moving a legit character from Account A to Account B? You're usually fine. Thousands of PvPers use "mules" to skip the 40-hour grind for every new build they want to test. They've been doing it since Dark Souls 3.
Important Note: Always, and I mean always, disable Steam Cloud Sync before you start messing with these files. Steam Cloud is notorious for "correcting" your save folder by overwriting your newly copied file with an old one from the cloud. It'll make you think the tool didn't work.
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Steam Deck and Linux Hurdles
If you’re on a Steam Deck, things get weird. The file path isn't in a standard "AppData" folder because of how Proton handles Windows applications. You’ll usually find your saves buried deep in the compatdata folder.
Specifically, you're looking for:~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/1245620/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/EldenRing/
Running a Windows-based elden ring save copier on Linux requires Protontricks or just doing the copy-pasting on a Windows PC and moving the final .sl2 file back over. It’s a headache, but it works.
Practical Steps to Not Lose Everything
Don't be the person who posts on Reddit because they deleted their 500-hour save.
- Manual Backups: Before you even download a tool, copy your entire
16-digit-numberfolder to your desktop. Name it "ER_BACKUP_REAL." - The "Blank Slot" Trick: When using a copier, never overwrite a character you care about. Create a dummy character in Elden Ring first—literally just a "Wretch" named "DeleteMe"—and overwrite that slot in the copier tool.
- Version Check: If your game is on version 1.16 but the save you're copying is from 1.02, it might work, but you should immediately go to a Site of Grace and rest to let the game update the internal logic.
The reality is that Elden Ring's save system is archaic. It’s a single file holding up to ten characters. If one bit of data in that file gets funky, the whole thing is "corrupted." Tools like the elden ring save copier or the more advanced "Elden Ring Save Manager" are basically essential if you value your time and want to experiment with different builds without re-running the Mountaintops of the Giants for the tenth time this month.
If you’ve followed the steps and still get a "Save Data Corrupted" message, it usually means the checksum didn't update. Some tools have a "Fix Checksum" button. Use it. If it still fails, your "Source" file might actually be legitimately broken.
Start by verifying your game files on Steam. Then, try the process again with a fresh destination file. It’s a bit of a dance, but once you get it, you’ll never worry about losing a character again.